Producers: Kevin Costner, John Davis, Charles Gordon, Lawrence Gordon &, Andrew Licht
Writers: Peter Rader & David Twohy
Music by: James Newton Howard & Artie Kane
Cinematographers: Scott Fuller & Dean Semler
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi Thriller
Release Date: July 28, 1995
Some time in the future, the polar ice caps have melted, due to a shift in the Earth's axis, and the Earth is almost entirely covered with water. Surviving humans have forgotten the past; their creation belief is that the world was created in a deluge. So entrenched is this view that any other is regarded as blasphemy. There is, however, a common folk-belief amongst the various peoples that Dryland exists, though opinions on its physical properties vary greatly.
The surviving peoples can be classified into four groups:
- Drifters, individualistic loners who ply the water in small boats, collecting things and trading with one another as well as with atolls;
- Atoll Dwellers, who live in large floating constructs called atolls . These are not to be confused with the natural coral formations of the same name.
- Smokers are pirates who inhabit abandoned oil tankers. They are called such because of the smoke they make by using oil-powered equipment, such as jetskis; they all smoke tobacco, and consider cigarettes one of the most valuable treasures to be stolen.
- Slavers were mentioned by the drifter the Mariner meets early in the movie but not shown.
In the future, the Earth is engulfed with water when the polar ice caps melts, leaving the lands and civilization beneath the sea. The antihero is a drifter (Kevin Costner)
, who arrives at an Atoll to trade his dirt — a highly prized rarity. For most of the film, he has no name, though some refer to him as "the Mariner." He is a genetic mutant, with webbed feet and gills. He also appears to have amplified reflexes and hand-eye coordination, along with a "sixth sense", and natural mechanical ability.
The Atollers propose a deal with the Mariner: if he agrees to stay a short time — just long enough to impregnate one of their women — they will let him go with all the supplies he needs. However, the Mariner refuses their offer: he is clearly uncomfortable among the many people and claustrophobic surroundings of the Atoll. Angered, the Atoll's leaders have him arrested, using the excuse that he may be a spy for the Smokers. During the struggle that ensues, they are horrified to discover his mutant features; fearing him, they condemn him to be "recycled" in the Atoll's septic midden.
As they prepare to "recycle" the Mariner, however, the Smokers arrive in a raid, bringing with them a M45 Quadmount to destroy the Atoll. Their leader is the Deacon, who is the "capta
in" of a derelict oil tanker, the Exxon Valdez (nicknamed "the 'Deez"). They are in search of a young girl living on the atoll named Enola, who appears to have a map to Dryland tattooed on her back; one of their spies, a man who was spurned by the Mariner at the atoll, had advised them of her presence there. An outcast in the society of the Atoll, Enola lives with her caretaker, Helen, a woman in her twenties or thirties. Helen and Enola plan to escape with Gregor in search of Dryland because, like the Mariner, they don't fit in.
Unfortunately, Gregor's escape balloon is accidentally released too early (with him on it), leaving Helen and Enola stranded on the Atoll as the Smokers overrun it. They release the Mariner, after they force him to agree to take them with him, and escape on his large trimaran. To create a diversion, they turn the Quadmount on the Deacon's boat, destroying the craft and causing the Deacon to lose an eye. Despite being rescued from certain death, the Mariner is displeased to have companions on his vessel, even after Helen offers to have sex with him in exchange for protection. The Deacon, looking now for both revenge and Dryland, has a number of skirmishes with the Mariner in his attempts to get Enola back. A mad drifter is also taken aboard the Mariner's ship for trading. The drifter wants to trade paper for Helen (presumably for sexual reasons) and also asks for Enola, with the excuse of wanting somebody to talk to (also presumably for sexual reasons, saying "Twenty-five minutes with the wee one; I like to do the talkin' if you know what I mean."). The Mariner temporarily agrees only to trade Helen, and the drifter goes below deck with Helen and tries to encourage her to have sex with him. However, the Mariner intervenes and the drifter draws a knife, telling Helen 'this won't take a minute.' The fight is not shown onscreen, but banging and frequent swearing are heard after which the drifter appears with blood on his knife. It is soon revealed that the Mariner has used a blade to slice down the drifter's spine, which results in his death. The Mariner disposes of his body in the ocean.
Helen, meanwhile, having reasoned that the Mariner must know where Dryland is, demands to see it. The Mariner, who can breathe underwater
(due to his gills), puts her in a diving bell made out of plastic and swims down to a sunken city to show her. As they are inspecting the sunken city, the Smokers locate and board the Mariner's vessel; when the Mariner and Helen return to the surface, the Smokers capture them. The Deacon grills the Mariner and Helen regarding the whereabouts of Enola, who is obviously still somewhere aboard the ship, but the pair refuse to provide the Deacon with any assistance; this momentarily stuns the Deacon, who has never been refused information before. The Deacon pretends to have killed the Mariner and Helen by firing a gun into the sky, which scares Enola out of hiding so that she is captured by the Smokers. The Deacon has his crew burn the Mariner's vessel and shoot at the pair, but they escape by diving deeper than the bullets can reach. Since Helen cannot breathe
underwater, the Mariner offers to "breathe for the both of us," which results in a prolonged kiss of life while bullets rain down around them.
Helen and the Mariner grow hopeless, just as Gregor appears in his flying machine, telling them it was "good thinking" to burn the boat. Gregor then takes the pair to the beginnings of a new Atoll where several other survivors of the Smoker attack at the film's beginning have begun to rebuild. Here, the Mariner announces his intention to rescue Enola, as Helen tries and fails to convince anyone to help him.
The Mariner chases down the Exxon Valdez on a stolen jetski and boards it. Celebrating the find of "the map to Dryland", the Deacon rewards his crew by tossing them handfuls of cigarettes from his car, which is driven up and down the deck of the ship, and later cans of "Smeat" from the ship's sterncastle. Unfortunately, neither the Deacon nor his crew has any idea how to read the map; based largely on the shape of the area of Dryland, the Deacon believes that the area indicated must be 
rther conversations indicate that the supply of oil in the 'Deez is running low, threatening the Deacon's hold on power. After a stirring speech — in which the Deacon manages to persuade the crew that he knows what he's doing — the crew begins to row the immense ship with huge oars, in the style of a Viking longship.
After cutting a murderous swath through the bowels of the ship, the Mariner walks out onto the now-empty deck and threatens to throw a flare down into the oil holds unless the Deacon returns Enola. The Deacon ignores Enola's warning that the Mariner never bluffs, and refuses, telling the Mariner that he
would be crazy to blow up the ship. The Mariner responds by dropping the flare into the oil hold. The flare ignites the remaining oil, consuming the 'Deez in a massive explosion.
As the crew of the 'Deez run for their lives, the Mariner manages to recapture Enola and escape the ship. They float at sea for a while and then engage in one last battle with the Deacon before being rescued by Gregor, who has joined with several other castaways and drifters in search of a place to start anew. En route to finding Enola and the Mariner, they found Helen, who has joined their quest. Gregor finally figures out the map — after the Mariner comments that the Earth's magnetic poles have reversed — and steers his balloon off in the direction of what does, in fact, turn out to be Dryland:
Major Casts:
- Kevin Costner – Mariner/Trader/Ulysses
- Jeanne Tripplehorn – Helen
- Tina Majorino – Enola
- Dennis Hopper – Deacon
- Robert LaSardo – Smitty
- Michael Jeter – Old Gregor
- Jack Black – Floatplane pilot
- Jonathan Higley – Old Quicksilver
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